Monday, December 28, 2009

Death toll from Pakistan Shi'ite mosque attack rises to seven

THE death toll from a suicide attack outside a Shi'ite Muslim mosque in Pakistani-administered Kashmir rose to seven after two people died overnight, officials say.

The attack in Muzaffarabad came as Pakistan put tens of thousands of security forces on alert, fearing sectarian clashes and militant attacks as millions of Shi'ites mark the seventh-century killing of Imam Hussein.

Officials said the bomber tried to enter the mosque, which was crowded with Shi'ites gathering to pray on the eve of Ashura in Pakistan.

"The death toll has reached seven in the suicide blast. Two people died overnight in hospital," said deputy Muzaffarabad commissioner Chaudhry Imtiaz.

Rashid Shah, a police official, confirmed the toll, saying: "There are three policemen and four civilians among the dead."

During Ashura, worshippers clad in black march through the streets, flailing themselves with chains to commemorate the killing of Imam Hussein by armies of the Sunni caliph Yazid in 680.

Shi'ites account for about 20 per cent of Pakistan's mostly Sunni Muslim population of 167 million. More than 4000 people have died in outbreaks of sectarian violence in Pakistan since the late 1980s.

Kashmir was split into two in the bloody aftermath of independence in the subcontinent from Britain in 1947. Nuclear rivals India and Pakistan each control a part of the mountainous land but both claim the region in full.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in a nearly 20-year revolt in Indian Kashmir, where Muslim militants have fought against New Delhi's rule, but suicide attacks are rare in the Pakistan administered zone.

India has accused Pakistan of arming and funding militants waging the insurgency in Kashmir, although Islamabad denies the charges.

Militant attacks across Pakistan have killed more than 2700 people since July 2007 and Washington is pressuring Islamabad to do more to wipe out al-Qaeda and stop insurgents crossing the border to attack in Afghanistan.